Spencer J. Pack

Smith's Humean Criticism of Hume's Account of the Origin of Justice

It is argued that Adam Smith criticizes David Humes account of the origin of and continuing adherence to the rule of law for being not sufficiently Humean. Hume explained that adherence to the rule of law originated in the self-interest to restrain self-interest. According to Smith, Hume does not pay enough attention to the passions of resentment and admiration, which have their source in the imagination. Smiths offers a more naturalistic and evolutionary account of the psychological pre-conditions of the establishment and morality of justice than Hume had. Yet, Smiths account also makes room for a thin conception of Lockean natural right to property, while rejecting the contractualist and rationalistic elements in Locke. It emerges that Smith severs the intimate connection that Hobbes and Hume made between justice and property.

Unpacking ‘Adam Smith: Critical Theorist?’

This paper responds to Keith Tribes provocative Journal of Economic Literature article, “Adam Smith: Critical Theorist?” There Tribe argued that most people most of the time grossly misread Smith, due, among other things, to their quite inadequate appreciation of Smiths linguistic, social, moral, and theological context. Against Tribe, the paper argues that Smith can profitably be read as both an eighteenth-century moralist and a twenty-first century critic. Smith can be a source of inspiration, wisdom and profundity for contemporary economists. Moreover, Smith can be successfully employed by modern economists to change, deepen, and broaden contemporary economic theory.

A History of Heterodox Economics: Challenging the Mainstream in the Twentieth Century

Bibow, J. (1995) Some reflections on Keynes’s ‘finance motive’ for the demand for money, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 19, pp. 657–666. Dalziel, P.C. & Harcourt, G.C. (1997) A note on ‘Mr Meade’s Relation’ and international capital movements, Cambridge Journal of Economics, 21, pp. 621–631. Dow, S.C. (1997) Endogenous money, in: G.C. Harcourt & P.A. Riach (Eds) A ‘Second Edition’ of The General Theory, Vol. 2 (London: Routledge). Feldstein, M. & Horioka, C. (1980) Domestic saving and international capital flows, Economic Journal, 90, pp. 314–329. Godley, W. & Lavoie, M. (2007) Monetary Economics: An Integrated Approach to Credit, Money, Income, Production and Wealth (London: Palgrave Macmillan). Harcourt, G.C. (1987) The legacy of Keynes: theoretical methods and unfinished business, in: C. Sardoni (Ed.) On Political Economists and Modern Political Economy: Selected Essays of G.C. Harcourt (London: Routledge, 1992). Keynes, J.M. (1930) A Treatise on Money, Vol. 1 & 2 (London: Macmillan). Keynes, J.M. (1979) The General Theory and After: A Supplement, Vol. XXIX of The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes, D.E. Moggridge (Ed.) (London: Macmillan).

The Myth of Adam Smith

This book presents a controversial account of the work of Adam Smith, challenging prevailing orthodox thought on Smith’s contribution to economics. It argues that Smith’s fame as an economic analyst and economic historian is undeserved.